Current Clean Intermittent Catheters (“CIC”) are single use catheters used for bladder drainage by patients who cannot control either their urinary sphincter muscle or bladder muscles. Conventional CICs are tubular structures having a cylindrical wall with single or multiple openings or drainage eyes at a distal end that communicates with an interior drainage lumen. In use, conventional CICs are inserted into the urethra, through the urinary sphincter (holding it open) and into the bladder for drainage. Once in the bladder, any urine present will drain through the drainage eye, into the internal lumen and through the catheter, into a urine bag or other structure that is connected to the proximal end of the CIC.
One problem seen today with conventional catheters is there is a high Urinary Tract Infection (“UTI”) rate among users who self-catheterize due to bacteria being pushed up from the urethra towards and into the bladder as the catheter is inserted. In normal bladder voiding without a catheter, urine flushes the urethra and any existing bacteria away from the bladder as its flows reducing the chance of UTI, however, because with current CICs, the urine flows through the lumen on the interior of the catheter, flushing of the urethra does not occur.